The Republican Party of Texas has introduced a proposal that appears to call for the death penalty for women who seek abortions and for the doctors who help them.
On Saturday, Texas delegates at a GOP convention presented a detailed platform that defines abortion as “no health care…murder.”
The 50-page document calls for “equal protection of the law for all newborn children from the moment of conception,” and for doctors to be exempt from murder charges only if the abortion is “non-elective,” as required to save the health of the children. life of the mother.’
Under Texas law, perpetrators of infanticide are punishable by death.
Pro-life protesters stand at the gate of the Texas capitol during a protest outside the Texas capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas
Representatives are currently voting on whether to approve all proposals.
Comment on the platform‘, says Farah Diaz-Tello, senior advisor and legal director at Lawyering for Reproductive Justice HuffPost that the death penalty is the “next logical step” in the anti-abortion movement in Texas.
However, speaking to DailyMail.com, legal experts in Texas have suggested that the party platform has “no influence on the legislature” and that enforcing death sentences for abortions in Texas would be “virtually impossible” in practice.
“Texas Republicans are merely reaffirming beliefs we have long known they hold,” the attorney told DailyMail.com.
‘In order to sentence women to the death penalty, there should be a law that clearly states this, and party platforms have no influence on this.
“Additionally, prosecutors rarely, if ever, prosecute women who have abortions. They’re more likely to go after the doctor and even then it’s an uphill battle.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more prisoners have been executed in Texas since 1976 than in any other state – with 586 fatalities.
Abortion is currently punishable by up to 99 years in prison in Texas, both for the woman undergoing the procedure and the medical professional assisting her.
In practice, however, the abortion seeker is rarely brought to justice.
The document also calls for “preserving” the dignity of human embryos, including “banning the trade in human embryos,” referring to people seeking IVF out of state.
At a press event in April, former President Donald Trump said he believed there was no longer a need for a national abortion ban
This has led to fears that Texas will soon follow in the footsteps of Alabama, where human embryos are given the same legal status as children.
The decision led to the closure of major IVF clinics in the state over fears of criminal charges if embryos were inadvertently damaged.
The proposal also refers to homosexuality as an “abnormal lifestyle choice” and condemns “any attempts to validate transgender identity.”
“We believe that gender modification and any form of gender-affirming care for minors does not constitute medical care and is in fact child abuse,” the proposal reads.
Currently, abortion is illegal in fourteen states, and access to the procedure is restricted in another seven states.
